A few days ago, we highlighted the drastic privacy implications of new guidelines issued to govern data-mining by the National Counterterrorism Center (鈥淣CTC鈥�). Yesterday, we testified to Congress about the problems with the guidelines, and we filed three Freedom of Information Act (鈥淔OIA鈥�) requests to learn more about how the guidelines will affect the privacy of millions of Americans.
As we explained before, under , the NCTC may aggregate federal databases consisting mainly of information about Americans with no connection to terrorism and then analyze those databases and disseminate the results for reasons also unrelated to terrorism. What databases will NCTC aggregate? We don鈥檛 know yet, but in our FOIA requests we鈥檝e asked for details. What we do know is that the federal government collects an enormous amount of personal information for myriad reasons. Think about your healthcare services, business licenses, gun permits, welfare benefits, voting registrations, and employment records.
Under the new guidelines, the NCTC could potentially combine all the databases that store that sensitive and private information into a single, massive searchable and data-minable database.
The guidelines accomplished this sweeping transformation of the NCTC鈥檚 data-mining abilities primarily by allowing the NCTC to intentionally collect data on U.S. citizens and residents even where those people have no suspected ties to terrorism, and to keep that data for 5 years (up from 180 days).
Hidden by the dry technical details of the new guidelines is what we called a 鈥渞eboot of the Total Information Awareness Program鈥� roundly rejected by Americans after 9/11. Here is how my colleague, Chris Calabrese, described one of the main problems with the guidelines in his written statement to Congress:
In what is perhaps the most significant change, the Obama administration has extended the authority of the NCTC to intentionally collect, retain and assess data on U.S. citizens and residents, even where those people have no suspected ties to terrorism. Previously, the intelligence community was barred from collecting information about ordinary Americans unless the person was a terror suspect or related to an actual investigation. Therefore, when NCTC collected information from federal government databases, it had to search for and identify any innocent US person information inadvertently collected, and discard it within 180 days. This crucial purpose limitation meant that NCTC was dissuaded from collecting or maintaining information on innocent Americans in its large databases, and prohibited from using or disseminating it. The 2012 guidelines eliminate this check, allowing NCTC to collect and 鈥渃ontinually assess鈥� information on innocent Americans for up to five years.
Chris went on to describe the NCTC鈥檚 alarming new powers under the guidelines to mine the data it has aggregated:
Once NCTC acquires this information, the new guidelines give it broad new powers to search through it. As long as queries are designed to solely identify information that is reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information, it may conduct queries that involve non-terrorism data points and pattern based searches and analysis (data mining). It is particularly noteworthy that NCTC relies on a technique, data mining, which has been thoroughly discredited as a useful tool for identifying terrorists. Data mining searches are notoriously inaccurate and prone to false positives, and it is therefore very likely that individuals with no connection to terrorism will be caught up in terrorism investigations if this technique is utilized. As far back as 2008 the National Academy of Sciences found that data mining for terrorism was scientifically 鈥渘ot feasible鈥� as a methodology, and likely to have significant negative impacts on privacy and civil liberties.
You can read Chris鈥檚 full statement to Congress .
The three FOIA requests we filed yesterday seek more information about the government鈥檚 claimed need for the updated NCTC guidelines and the likely impact on the privacy of millions of innocent U.S. citizens and residents whose private information is routinely collected in federal databases. We鈥檒l keep you posted on how the government responds.
Learn more about government surveillance: Sign up for breaking news alerts, , and .
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Free Speech
National Security
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Religious Liberty
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VirginiaDec 2024
National Security
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Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government鈥檚 case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured. Mr. Trabelsi鈥檚 detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
National Security
Immigrants' Rights
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